Demographics, French labour law and language

My support for super fresh milk was vindicated. Our Cow Molly was given first place in the BBC’s Food and Farming awards. The competition was stiff, aquaponic technology for example. It’s somehow comforting that the production and marketing of fresh milk was judged to be inspiring. Pleased also to see that fresh milk is of interest to many people.

The Spectator magazine of 23rd April reported that In 1952 life expectancy at birth was 66 for men and 70 for women. It is now 79.1 and 82.8 respectively. There were 300 Britons over the age of 100 in 1952. There are now 14,500 with another 527,000 over 90.

Current public unrest in Paris, and elsewhere in France, is a reaction to the government’s attempts to change certain aspects of the country’s labour law. The Medef, the employers’ organisation, blames in part the complexity of the labour law for the lack of new job creation since employers are reluctant to hire because it is so difficult to fire employees at times of economic downturn. The cost to employ is also high in France and this too is partly blamed on the Code du Travail, and the 35 hour week, for example. During a televised debate on the subject, Sur I Télé, 27 September 2015, the Code du Travail was shown to contain 3900 pages of which 675 were the laws and the remainder contained commentary on the spirit and the application of the laws. These figures refer to the Dalloz edition which is the most commonly used. Companies of a certain size find it necessary to employ specialists in labour law to defend their interests against what is, in effect, a document which exclusively defends the interests of the salaried employee. As soon as a company employs its 50th person, it becomes subject to many more articles of the Code du Travail and this administrative load is extremely difficult for SMEs to cope with. There are others who argue that the size and complexity of the Code du Travail has little to do with the high unemployment rate in France, Thomas Picketty for example. This is a subject which has created serious problems for successive governments.

In parallel, the gigantic order to supply Australia with state-of-the-art submarines that France has recently won in the face of Japanese and German competition, should be a major boost to national morale and have some effect on the unemployment figures.

From a language usage standpoint, what’s been annoying me recently? The use of “multiple”. It is usual in multiple fractures, 9 is a multiple of 3, but now it’s everywhere: "…with multiple people claiming that it lost them their jobs." Business Insider, 01.04.16. Yet another American usage. What’s wrong with or so unattractive about words like many and several? Are they too ordinary? It must be that “multiple people” is so creative and original that I’m missing the point.

I was heartened to read an item by an American commentator, quoting Mr Trump: “It’s the novel syntax. The free-form grammar - ‘This is a story that seems to be more and more happening’ ”. Andrew Romano, Yahoo, 31.03.16. Ah, well.

I shall close with a complex mix of syntax provided by Joe Lynam, a journalist specialising in Business on BBC’s Radio 4 programme Today: “...much fewer companies”. Joe also uses a lot of Americanisms…

Fresh milk, Americanisms, buzzwords and pennies

I was interested to hear about super fresh milk produced and delivered by a small dairy farm near Sheffield. Their brand is Our Cow Molly. They are finalists for the BBC’s Food and Farming awards. The milk collected during the day is processed overnight and delivered the following morning to their customers, one of whom is Sheffield University. The dairy industry is going through hard times at the moment and this seems to be a way of making people think about the milk they are drinking, milk which is usually sold at rock-bottom prices to the large wholesale processors, then to high-street retail chains before being sold to the public still at very low prices. Our Cow Molly sells super fresh milk at a modest premium and their customers pay this willingly. I understand that the local Cooperative Wholesale Society is now also a customer.

It’s interesting because I don’t think about the milk I drink although I drink quite a lot of it and am convinced it’s good for me. I vaguely know how much it costs and whether I’m drinking low-fat, semi-skimmed or full-fat, otherwise I don’t give it much thought. This strikes me as being a pity. I don’t think I have drunk truly fresh milk in the last half century and this strikes me as being even more of a pity. I wish Our Cow Molly massive success and hope that their model will inspire others to adopt a similar production and marketing approach.

The BBC recently reported on a Paris court case thus: A Paris tribunal has ruled that calling a male hairdresser a "faggot" is not homophobic. This provoked me into sending an email to this august institution, expressing my opinion, and that of the OED, that the word faggot in this context is originally and chiefly U.S. slang. I trusted that they were keeping a close eye on the ever-increasing use of Americanisms in the daily written and spoken word. Much good will it do me!

The French have the same problem, as English creeps daily into their language under the most erudite noses of the Académie Française. If you’re interested in this area, Le Figaro newspaper ran a short article on the subject in June 2015: Le guide de survie contre les anglicismes au bureau, Par Lucile Quillet.

I approve of a key requirement but not this requirement is key, because adjectives like crucial and vital are disappearing under the relentless pressure. I had a quiet snigger when I heard a French speaker on the radio saying ça, c’est clé. The French are not noted for their rapid uptake of this kind of buzzword (itself originally a U.S. buzzword), especially in another language.

Another annoyance, a BBC journalist whose name escapes me, referred in his report to one pence. The OED records that this is sometimes used colloquially to refer to the new penny after 1971 decimalisation. I part company with the OED on this one.